Fashion On Film: Diane Pernet's shaded view

PARIS — Fashion icon, cult blogger, fashion critic, and video journalist Diane Pernet launched the fourth international edition of A Shaded View on Fashion Film Festival (ASVOFF) , a film festival devoted to fashion and style in film. This year, brands and designers featured in the films include Yves Saint Laurent, Balmain, Undercover, Miu Miu, Comme des Garcons, Maison Martin Margiela, House of Holland, Stephen Jones, Prada, Dries Van Noten, Calvin Klein, and Gareth Pugh. Behind the camera are photographers Bruce Weber, Ellen von Unwerth, Inez Van Lamsweerde & Vinoodh Matadin, Lisa Eisner, Mark Borthwick, and Bryan Adams.

A few blocks down from the Eiffel Tower, there was a fortuitous occurrence, one among many that I have had while living in Paris. I had just bought a batch of eggs to make an omelette and while balancing this and tomatoes in one hand, I saw Diane Pernet sauntering down the street. She looked the way I had seen her in photographs: black attire and black headpiece, stark against the sunshine. She looked, not imposing, but rather, costumed. I introduced myself, sent her some writing samples via e-mail, and got a tiny glimpse of her world, ashadedviewonfashion.com. There were writing stints, an interview, and seeing her at events, where people bow their heads at her profusely and kiss her hand, as if she is a goddess. To be sure, a cult following is behind the woman and her website, and now, with her film festival that was launched in 2008, a larger and wider audience.

She tells parts of her story: having lived over a decade in Paris, and before that in New York as a designer, Pernet says she simply has always done what she loves to do: fashion. As a designer she had reached the caliber of the known designers of the time: fashion editorials in all the important Vogues, worn by famous models of the day; editorials with Ralph Lauren, her line a rising star in New York. Transforming from designer to editor to witty commentator — from Joyce magazine to Elle to VogueParis.com — to style maven, her blog launched in 2005 and its direct, often under-the-radar and always informative content has gained her international fame and respect in the industry. These heights of fashion she does not talk about in the interview; saying, instead, in what seems to be a characteristically modest manner: “You can find more information on my blog.” What she mentions is living in New York as a fashion designer, and making her way in Paris afterwards, where — although to an observer with a global view it was apparent that she had already achieved fashion highs — having found that Parisians were infinitely more critical than New Yorkers, there was an extra bit needed to again make one’s path. She is down-to-earth, with a whisper-thin voice, and discusses A Shaded View on Fashion Film Festival, which at the time of this interview, is just about to launch another edition.

Film star: ASVOFF4 screened at the Centre Pompidou in Paris

ASVOFF began in 2008, to meld Pernet’s love for film with the passion for fashion. It is also intended as a platform for emerging talents: filmmakers who want to express their creativity via fashion, or designers and other fashion stakeholders who try their hand at fashion film, often for the first time. There are films from the past, such as fashion défilés from the 1950s or fashion brand advertisements of past decades, for intensive fashion history courses. Often held over three days at the Centre Pompidou in Paris where the best films are awarded, the festival then travels around the globe.

To understand the breadth and quest for excellence of ASVOFF, one should only watch the entries submitted: talented takes on fashion, beauty and style. In 2010, Lust Lust by Martins Grauds, which won best film, showed a funny and powerful story, utilising several visually powerful fashion accessories: hanger-inspired blouses, carefully wrapped packages, handheld mirrors, a knit bodysuit. These accessories propelled the story forward; if not entirely making sense to the protagonist, to the viewer they propelled the plot forward. A man has a transformation: a delivery agent who meets various characters on the way learns to appreciate differences, and discovers his style. In 2011, the winning film, I Want Muscle by Elisha Smith-Leverock is just as accessorized — a seeming prerequisite in fashion film — but in one location. Its plot is a Q&A of a bodybuilder; here, strength, body forms, power, and again the metamorphosis, are apparent.

The genre, fashion film, being relatively new, has little defined criteria, and thus the judges’ discretion is a powerful tool. The fashion education given in the festival is a very potent and useful way by which fashion can be dissected and studied as a sociological phenomenon, and use in one’s personal or professional life. In this, one can see Pernet’s continuing influence in fashion.

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ASVOFF debuted in Paris during fashion week and tours the globe with subsequent screenings. The festival is in Tokyo until Oct. 23.